USS Shadow Hawk
The USS Shadow Hawk was an old pre-uniform design 800 meter Super Cruiser, initially decommissioned as part of the reduction in size of the United Stars Navy during the Peace Hawk Debacle. Recommissioned shortly after the start of the Union Y'All war, it saw little action. It was again decommissioned about 20 years after the first Uni Design ships had been commissioned. Fourty years after the end of the Y'All war it was selected by Admiral Stahl to serve as a flagship in times of war. It was refitted with the most advanced shields and updated weapon systems with an almost fanatic devotion of the Devi's engineering department. History When Stahl approached his friend Admiral Gythoxxinaty Aluoxxim ( Oromarl ) who was in charge of the Bone Yard planets and in particular the Surplus storage of First Fleet , with the request to find an old but serviceable ship that would not be needed in the war effort (3rd Union / GC war aka Green Hell war) the Oromarl admiral nicknamed "Gyxi" contacted in turn a friend of his, a Bellebee who knew every piece of surplus stored anywhere. Unknown to Stahl the USS Retribution was found. It was classified as a pre-uniform design Super Cruiser. However the USS Retribution was one of the proposed designs for the new Uni-Design challenge and a consortium of Union Ship yards came up with this solution. It was not picked due to complexity and the non modular approach that was desired. However she was the first ship featuring Molecular compacted Ultronit and other inovative design solutions that became the hall mark of Uni ships. The ship was transfered to the Devi and re-activated as a First Fleet Unit. Stahl gave instructions to refurbish the ship with non essential spare parts and only to be worked on in non peak hours with a very low priority. Of course this had more or less the opposite effect. The Devi's chief engineer had to create a lottery system as to who was allowed to work on "Stahls Chariot". Very inovative tricks were used to "bend the rules" towards acquisition. Three Barracudas of the latest design were declared total loss and wrecks that could not be repaired ( that they had a few scorch marks was of course completely overlooked) Also prototypes and systems not cleared for regular service (and thus not in the regular supply chain) were requested. The mention that it would be for a ship the Eternal warrior wanted, was like a magic word in design labs and tech development centers) The Captain of the Devi full into the project, managed to get some very creative personnel transfers. For example the entire development team of Factiv Inc. (The Attikan company that was born out of the Imperial manufacture) to build tailor made Attikan Engines that were in fact the fastest engines ever made and held that title for more than 50 years. The project spread like wild fire across engineering departments and development laboratories. Without the restraints or directive of a design burreau and completley of the radar of any budget streams, every engineer and tech wanted simply to create the very best so the Eternal Warrior had something decent. The ship has design and system features no other ship in the known galaxy has and some don't even have propper names or have ever been repeated in another ship. Smittys Spitballer for example was the modification idea of a Devi Weapon Engineer . Completly redesigning the old Terran Hellbore Cannon into a fast fire Mass acceleration weapon firing frozen Deuterium balls. When the system was discovered year later by official engineers, it turned out to be the best point defense system ever developed. Similar was the Lethal Soap Bubble drone. Basically a ParaDim shield projector in a missile. It would engulf a target in a strong Para Dim shield without any shield gaps, completley encapsulating the target and all its energies, basically cooking the enemy ship in its own enegies so to speak and any weapon discharge without anywhere to go.The Soap Bubble Drones were accidently re discovered in 5044 as a large cache was found in a Devi Storage room without any official muniton markings or supply numbers. The Shadow Hawk project is legendary until this day and only recently the full extend has been discovered. It was seen as a testament just how much the Union Fleet personnel respected and loved the Eternal Warrior and cconducting a fleet wide project without anyone really officially knowing about it. Category:Military Ships Category:Union Navy